Uncle Max
by No Blood For Oil
Summary: AU. I took a stab/poke at pulp fiction. Anyway, Kagome, her mother, Souta, and jii-chan live with her previously estranged Uncle "Max", a wealthy and mysterious person who works in the "entertainment industry" ::gasp:: One day, Kagome comes home to find h


Kagome watched the dust mites drift torpidly, illuminated by the single shaft of light that had somehow escaped Bong's curtains. Okay, so her name wasn't really Bong, merely a pun. It brought a spark of life into an otherwise dull day. Art class…definitely not her favorite subject of all time. Bong was boring-as-hell, to put it plainly. Listening to her droning on about impressionism would put _anyone_ to sleep. 

But it wasn't the usual crap about Monet, oh no. Bong had decided to be "creative". Apparently, her idea of creative was showing slides of paintings of the West, hence the curtains. Ugh. Kagome, her head resting in her arms, nudged her friend Sango in the ribs. She made a face and motioned in Bong's direction, and Sango laughed, not entirely muffling it. 

Bong caught it immediately; perhaps she didn't like the sound of other people having fun. "Something funny, Kagome?" she snapped. Kagome shook her head. "Then perhaps you'd care to share with the class what this picture evokes from you." Bong huffed, thrusting a picture in front of Kagome's face. It was of a testosterone-charged cowboy, shooting at some random point in the distance. 

Without missing a beat, Kagome said "Yeehaw."

This time, the laughter wasn't muffled at all, as the entire class sniggered. 

Another spark of life in an otherwise boring day. Okay, so Kagome was a little jaded. It's not like it was entirely her fault; her dad left when she was 6. When she left for kindergarten, he was there. When she came back he was gone. It would take a complete idiot not to see how much that had affected her. Kagome had always blamed herself; maybe if she had been a better little girl, daddy wouldn't have left. 

Yeah, so she had a bit of a self-esteem problem. No big deal. Kagome shrugged. And what was with this introspective anyway? Okay, so her situation was a little weird. Let's start with her family. After her father left, her mother was unable to support Kagome, her brother Souta, and jii-chan. Then, out of the blue, Kagome's "long-lost" (more like estranged) uncle kindly offered to take all four of them in. Kagome had never been able to figure out how her uncle got so rich; his house was huge, he owned 4 or 5 cars (Kagome had never been able to tell them apart), and he wore expensive suits. Uncle "Max", as he liked to be called (why he adopted an American name, Kagome never knew), said that he worked in the entertainment industry, and nothing further could be pried out of him on the subject.

So Kagome, her mother, Souta, and jii-chan lived with her uncle in a huge mansion on the outskirts of the city. Not too bad, right? Kagome commuted into the city to go to school, and it was there, on her first day of first grade, that she met Sango, her best friend ever since. You see, the city was full of stupid, vapid girls, of which Kagome and Sango utterly detested. So they had a lot in common. And now Kagome was a senior; finally, her last year in this hellhole. 

Her high-school wasn't much to be proud of. As in elementary and junior high, it was filled with stupid vapid ditzes whose sole purpose in life was attracting the opposite sex (that goes for boys too). All the girls listened to pop; all the guys were stupid sexist fucks. Lovely school, ain't it?

But back to reality; thankfully, there were only a few minutes left in art, which was the last class of the day. Kagome waited impatiently, watching the clock wind inexorably toward 2:20. Only a minute left and she would be free from this hell on Earth. Although it's not like she had anything to look forward to after school; as Souta went to a private school, he had different days off. Or in this case, weeks. The lucky idiot had a three-day weekend, god knows why, so Ms Higurashi, Souta, and even jii-chan went for a little vacation. With uncle "Max" providing for them, Kagome's mum could afford to take a little time off.

Normally, Kagome would be ecstatic about the prospect of being practically alone for the weekend. It's not like "Max" was ever there anyway; he always had a business trip or some such thing. But no, out of all the days, today he had to be home, and today had to be the day he had "a surprise for you". Ugh.

Sango poked Kagome, who was beginning to fall asleep from boredom. "Kagome, class is over. Get up," she said, gesturing at the rest of the room. The class was beginning to file out as Bong watched them like a hawk. Maybe she just didn't want her tormented students to leave so soon, depriving her of her only source of pleasure. Oh well. Sucks for her.

Kagome yawned, stretched, shouldered her backpack, and trudged out of the room, Bong glaring after her. Sango poked Kagome again as they walked out of the dreary school and into the sunlight. "Oi, Kagome, what's the matter? You don't seem as…well…sarcastic as usual. Something wrong?" Sango asked.

Kagome shrugged. "Max has a surprise for me. I'm supposed to go home right after school."

Sango nodded, her lips pursed in an O. "Sorry about that," she slung her arm around Kagome's shoulder in a sympathetic way as they walked down the street. "Well, call me later, okay?" Sango waved goodbye as she turned left at the intersection. Kagome nodded as she slipped on her headphones, blasted koRn, and continued on.

5 minutes later, Kagome arrived, opening the door hesitantly. "Maax? Uncle Maaaaaaax? You home?" she called. No one answered. Odd, she thought to herself. Not without fear, she stepped inside. There were no lights on, another odd thing. Usually there was at least one light on, to keep the burglars away. She walked down the hall, again calling out "Uncle Max? You there?" from what she could tell in the dark, everything looked in order…until she got to Max's bedroom. What first caught her eye was the door. It was ajar, which was strange. Max, for his part, had been fanatical about his safety, and had always closed his bedroom door.

Tentatively, Kagome stepped inside. She gasped. The entire room was a shambles. His mahogany desk was overturned, the top facing toward the door like some sort of makeshift shield. Papers lay all over the room, drawers lay, pulled out of the desk. Books were strewn about the room, and even a bookcase was overturned. His bed was devoid of sheets and pillows, which were in a semi-neat pile on the side of the bed. Evidently, someone had been here…with a few accomplices…but where was Uncle Max? Kagome tentatively stepped over the piles of junk, looking for any sign of her uncle.

Her shoe made an odd squelching noise. Kagome looked down for the source of the sound…and gasped. She had stepped in a pool of blood.

Okay, very pulp-fictiony, but so what? I promise (if I do put up another chapter) that it will be much less cheesy. Let me know what you think, ne? oh, and Inuyasha, Shippou, and Miroku will arrive later in the fic, and Sango will have a bigger part, I promise. That is, if I put up another chapter.


End file.
